Leaders and Managers: Not one and the same
It’s the end of the day and you sit down at your desk…confused. You work hard as a manager and believe you do all the fundamentals of management correctly: set objectives, organize and staff effectively, provide clear work instructions, problem-solve, measure and evaluate individual and team success and represent the work of the team to upper management.
Yet, despite all your efforts, your team’s performance lags behind others. And you get periodic complaints from other departments about the lackluster service and inflexibility of your staff.
You ask yourself: What’s going on here? The answer may lie in the fact that you don’t understand the distinction between managing and leading.
Abraham Zaleznik, who established a professorship in leadership at Harvard University, says managers are basically problem-solvers. Which is fine. They are tough-minded, work hard, persistent and have good analytical ability.
Inspiring subordinates to achieve higher goals
But leaders are more, says Zaleznik. Leaders have imagination, greater ability to communicate, a broader vision that not only gets the job done, but gets it done in creative ways.
"The influence a leader exerts in altering moods, evoking images and expectations, and in establishing specific desires and objectives determines the direction a business takes," says Zaleznik. "The net result of this influence is to change the way people think about what is desirable, possible, and necessary."
How do leaders inspire followers to work toward achieving higher goals? Aren’t they just blessed with what we call charisma? Yes and no. There’s no denying that some people seem to be born with charisma. But leaders do have some characteristics that can be learned, or at least learned from. Most of these have to do with the way leaders relate to their subordinates.
Zaleznik says that managers who are not leaders tend to be caught up in the bureaucratic structure, and that they relate to their employees according to the role the workers play in a decision-making process. But leaders relate in more intuitive and sympathetic ways. They are more tuned in to the individual emotional needs of their followers, while managers tend to isolate themselves emotionally – to hide behind their jobs.
Engaging in both task-and people-centered behaviors
“...managers are basically problem-solvers...They are tough-minded, work hard, persistent and have good analytical ability...but leaders have imagination, greater ability to communicate, a broader vision...”
—Abraham Zaleznik, Harvard University
The successful leader/manager is capable of engaging in high levels of both task-and people-centered behaviors, providing a path for increasing employee job satisfaction, productivity and fostering conditions that help employees complete their tasks.
Managers can develop their leadership skills by focusing on these areas:
• Develop self-understanding. Research findings clearly indicate that insight into oneself is crucial to a healthy personality and, therefore, to the effective leader. It is essential for leaders to understand their
own feelings, motivations, values, strengths and weaknesses.
• Learn how to get advice. Many leaders excel at aggressively seeking information and taking charge.
• Communicate and teach effectively. The leader is willing to teach skills, provide positive and constructive feedback on performance, to share insights and experiences and to work very closely with people to help them mature and be creative.
• Convey a vision to subordinates. Explain how work-related effort can support organization goals which, when achieved, brings rewards for contributing employees.
• Listen well. Reach out to tap ideas and suggestions from your employees, and act quickly once your mind is made up.
• Build trust. The effective leader is assertive, self-confident and a role model. He or she works diligently to gain subordinates’ respect and trust.
• Cope with change and be flexible. Leaders must learn how to take on new and demanding roles, to deal with a changing organization and changing technology.
• Develop diagnostic skills. It’s important to be able to diagnose the cause of a situation instead of following hunches, or flying by the seat of your pants.
• Deal with adversity. When you fail, learn how to diagnose what went wrong, accept responsibility for your part in it, and then move on to the next problem.
Printed with permission from Coach: People Leadership, Tactics and Tips for Managers & Supervisors.
